Quote:
Originally Posted by Itchybottom
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If every single thought you have is stored in a unified physical structure with similar physical reactions to write and pull information, I sincerely doubt that even if there was to be an afterlife that what makes you the human "you" will remain after wards.
That is in idea genetic immorality, and much the reason things in nature reproduce. But such immorality conflicts with ego and trivializes a lot of the journey in life.
The moment your clone became aware of it's surroundings, your experiences would begin to differ. Even sitting across a room, staring at one another, you would be having different thoughts because your local environment would differ. If either of you died, you'd still be losing the individual experience of that clone -- it would really matter.
You can't will reality away, or start to think of existence as one big group hallucination. The universe and it's properties are infinitely complex, and if it is just an illusion -- it's a damned good one. Because our experiments in physical things, continue to have the same results.
Theosophy, specifically similar to the akashic records. Mortality makes us ponder the strangest things. Cosmic background radiation all around us, the universe birthing us to become sentient, it's all been deconstructed and reconstructed in the minds of thousands per generation (if not more), and in the end it only boils down to one thing. Eventually, you're going to be brain dead, your life is finite, wishful thinking and hope isn't going to keep that from happening. Everyone can have their own personal belief, and that's great, but that's actually creating the very illusion you're intending to shed.
You should probably read about mind uploading (protein kinase C/C zeta mapping for long term memory structure, and thorough understanding of neurogenesis for mapping real time data) -- through human ingenuity, one day your illusion idea might come to full fruition. There is nothing to suggest that in nature exists such a thing though, other than wishful thinking.
It's been suggested that even hydra age, and eventually die. |
Undeniably, you have some fair points. Yes, we have ego, and this conflicts with the concept that we're not ourselves. Yes, my perfect clone would see me from a different angle and would know that I am the original and this may indeed lead to a very different line of thought, at least at the moment the copy of me becomes aware and we fully separate into different consciousness. You're right that I can't will reality away, but religion and spiritual beliefs exist precisely because this is what they achieve. Sometimes reality is a brutal place to live in. No matter what technology we invent to extend our lives to 100 and 200 and 300 or more years, we cannot bring back to life people that have already passed on. My grandpa is dead. So no longer how long I live I will have to live with the reality that my grandpa is dead and that our modern therapies do nothing for him. So in the presence of this harsh reality I display vulnerability and
will reality away by inventing my own philosophy that allows me to somehow cope with a painful reality. I may be wrong about everything, and you may indeed be entirely right, but even if willing away reality is fools gold, it does offer some sanctuary for people who're hurt and unable to cope with reality as it's. For them, it's medicine. Do you want to take it away from them?
It's easy to talk about reality and about rationalizing circumstances, but when you confront it in a very personal setting, it's not so easy. For example, what if you're facing your dad and he's hurt because of a loss, and he turns to his religion to find council. Would you seriously approach him and tell him that he's acting irrationally and that his religion is just him
willing away the pain of loss? I ask you this because i've faced many predicaments like this. It's one thing to think that religion is insanity and it's quite another to say this to somebody in tears who will only understand a fraction of what you're saying. It feels pointless to me to fight against the mass ocean of emotions and limits that exist inside people. If religion is his medicine, then I won't interrupt him. I'll only interrupt him when I feel his religion is directly hurting someone in an obvious way.
I attended a funeral yesterday, the second one in a year. The attending pastor drilled into our heads that the deceased has went to a better place and that despite the sadness we feel there will be better times and merry songs to come. The whole point of his sermon was to attempt to relieve our worries and to encourage a sense of closure so that we can both remember the person who died but also carry on with ourt lives and not be destroyed by the grief we feel. It's a way to open a door in a very dark place, a door that offers hope and light. It's a way to see what's around us without feeling crippled by it. I did not believe the actual religious doctrine. I am not a christian, but I fully understand the point of all of it. It's a way to cope. It's a way to love. It's a way to connect and to not feel lonely. How is that bad? I am a human being. I am not going to stand up in the middle of the sermons and proclaim that this religious ceremony is foolish and that the person in the coffin is officially dead and that there's no afterlife and that wasting our time worrying about the dead is not productive because nothing we do can bring them back or give justice to them.
I am not saying that I am right and that you're wrong. I am saying that... what good does it do? It's like winning a race in the special olympics. It means nothing unless you're disabled too. I freely admit that, deep down, I feel that death is the end and there's nothing more and that any meaning in life that exists is temporal and passing. However, I'd love to be proven wrong. That's why I entertain these thoughts. I want to wonder: What if? What if we're not as different as we think we're? What if the moon really is made of cheese?
Quote:
God saw you were getting tired
And a cure was not to be.
So he put his arms around you
And whispered
'Come to me.'
A golden heart
stopped beating,
Hard working hands now rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us
He only takes the best.
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